For more than 40 years, Robert L. DuPont, M.D. has been a leader in drug abuse prevention and treatment. Among his many contributions to the field is his leadership as the first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1973-1978) and as the second White House Drug Chief (1973-1977). From 1968 to 1970 he was Director of Community services, for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, heading parole and half-way house services. From 1970 to 1973, he served as administrator of the District of Columbia Narcotics Treatment Administration (NTA), the city-wide drug abuse treatment program that was the model for the federal government's massive commitment to drug abuse treatment in the early 1970s. Following this distinguished public career, in 1978 Dr. DuPont became the founding president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc.

Dr. DuPont has written for publication more than three hundred professional articles and fifteen books and monographs on a variety of health-related subjects. His books include Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs: A Guide for the Family, A Bridge to Recovery: An Introduction to Twelve-Step Programs and The Selfish Brain: Learning from Addiction. In 2005, Hazelden, the nation's leading publisher of books on addiction and recovery, published three books on drug testing by Dr. DuPont: Drug Testing in Drug Abuse Treatment, Drug Testing in Schools, and Drug Testing in the Criminal Justice System.

Throughout his decades of work in addiction prevention, Dr. DuPont has served in many capacities. His activities in the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) include chairing the forensic science committee and he is a Life Fellow. He is also a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and was chairman of the Drug Dependence Section of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) from 1974 to 1979. In 1989 he became a founding member of the Medical Review Officer Committee of ASAM. He is an International Fellow of Drug Free Australia.

A graduate of Emory University, Dr. DuPont received an M.D. degree in 1963 from the Harvard Medical School. He completed his psychiatric training at Harvard and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. DuPont maintains an active practice of psychiatry specializing in addiction and the anxiety disorders and has been Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine since 1980. He is vice president of Bensinger, DuPont and Associates (BDA), a leading national consulting firm dealing with substance abuse, founded in 1982 by Dr. DuPont and Peter Bensinger, former Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Dr. DuPont's signature role throughout his career has been to focus on the public health goal of reducing the use of illegal drugs. He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Kolmac Foundation, the American Council on Science and Health, the National Anxiety Foundation and the World Federation Against Drugs.